Abel Jansma

I'm now doing a Master's in Theoretical Physics at the University of Amsterdam, and at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. However, I started off in an art school in Utrecht, and ever since I've been trying to combine the two. I found that mathematical algorithms offer great possibilities to explore this interface.

A while back, I started to try and translate mathematical papers into visual work, mostly focussing on dynamical systems and generative geometry. Out of these experiments, I selected two works for submission, which show how geometrical/topological structure and spatiotemporal patterns can appear out of simple mathematical rules.

Noctiluca

50 x 30 x 2 cm

LEDs in laser engraved perspex

2014

Based on a paper by Steven Strogatz (http://bit.ly/1TCMhfW), I wrote simulations for how fireflies gradually synchronize their blinking and visualized the temporal dynamics of this behavior (http://bit.ly/1RYJlsS). I then used this software to control LED arrays. I made an art installation out of this for a Dutch festival (ITGWO) and installed 500 lights in the dunes of the island. For Bridges, I would like to make a smaller version, restricted to a plane, which shows how the simple rules induce complex group behavior. I already made some small prototypes:
http://bit.ly/24ncu5W
http://bit.ly/1OskQ0j
http://bit.ly/1RkrEBU
However, I'm still experimenting with the time-scales of syncronisation and the medium, and flexible in the decision

Based on this paper: http://bit.ly/1RYLiWb
The authors find a way to emulate leaf venation by evolving a space colonization algorithm. It shows how very complex biological processes, like venation, can emerge from a simple and general mathematical principle. A network is grown by the algorithm with only an initial distribution of points as input. This allows for great freedom in the pattern generation. For an exhibition in the Bethanien Kunstraum in Berlin, for example, I released the algorithm on maps of Berlin's public transport network (00:58 in http://bit.ly/1UkjBI0). I would like to do a similar thing, but for Finland. The work would then be either a printed ensemble of patterns, or a video of live pattern generation: http://bit.ly/1K